Tag Archives: livescribe

livescribe vs. Wacom Inkling

I’ve had a livescribe pulse since it came out more than three years ago.  Just yesterday my pre-order of the Wacom Inkling pen came in from Amazon.  So now I’ve got something to compare the livescribe to.  Really, though, there isn’t much comparison.  Livescribe wins, handily.

  1. livescribe is more accurate, especially out at the edges of the pages
  2. livescribe software is much better — the inkling software is bare bones to say the least; to wit, livescribe has search, Inkling’s Sketch Manager does not.  livescribe software knows about the ordering of pages, Inkling does not.  The list goes on and on.
  3. livescribe is much cheaper — half price, really.
  4. livescribe is easier to carry around: with the livescribe, you carry a pen and notebook just as you would need to otherwise.  With Inkling, you need to carry an extra receiver that you need to clip on to whatever you write with.
  5. livescribe records audio, giving you a whole dimension of context you just don’t get with Inkling.

I can see how the inkling, with its pressure sensitivity, etc. could be useful for artists.  But for a scientist, engineer, student, journalist, or anyone else really other than an artist, the livescribe is a far superior product.